8.  The applicant was born in 1938 and currently resides in Dnipropetrovs’k.
9.  On 5 September 1938 the Troika tribunal of the Department of the NKVD[1] of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Dnipropetrovs’k Region (Трійка Управління Народного Комісаріату Внутрішніх Справ УPСР по Дніпропетровській області) resolved that the applicant’s father was a “socially harmful element” after a purported robbery (“соціально шкідливий елемент”), and sentenced him to 5 years’ imprisonment in a correctional labour camp.
10.  The applicant’s father died on 26 March 1976.
11.  On 28 March 1980 the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court quashed the resolution of 5 September 1938 of the Troika tribunal upon the protest lodged by the prosecutor of the Dnipropetrovs’k Region. It also terminated the proceedings in the case. In particular it found that:
“... there is no evidence of ... robbery...
... the investigation in the case was conducted in grave violation of the rules of procedural law.
No criminal proceedings in the case were initiated; the [applicant’s father] was not charged; there was no indictment in the case. In the course of the investigation of the case, the elementary rights of the accused were not respected (the right to defend oneself, etc.).
In such circumstances the resolution of the Troika has to be annulled and the proceedings in the case shall be terminated on the basis of an absence of any corpus juris in his actions ...”
12.  On 29 May 1980 the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court issued written notice to the applicant that the proceedings in his father’s case had been terminated and that the Troika’s resolution of 5 September 1938 had been annulled.
13.  On 24 February 1997 the Commission on Rehabilitation of the Dnipropetrovs’k Municipal Council requested the President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court to provide information concerning the conviction of the applicant’s father on 5 September 1938, as the notice of 29 May 1980 contained insufficient information about it. The Commission was also requested to state whether the father’s conviction had been politically motivated.
14.  On 4 March 1997 the Deputy President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court issued written notice to the Commission on Rehabilitation of the Dnipropetrovs’k Municipal Council that:
“... by a resolution of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court of 28 March 1980, the resolution of the Troika has been annulled and the proceedings in the case terminated due to the lack of proof of guilt.”
15.  From March 1997 until May 2000, the applicant unsuccessfully appealed to the Deputy President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court and the President of that court, and wrote to the Supreme Court of Ukraine, claiming the untruthfulness of the notice and asking that it be reworded, since it did not correspond to the resolution of Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court of 28 March 1980 and, accordingly, his father’s memory had been defamed. He also sought initiation of criminal proceedings against the Deputy President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court.
16.  On 8 August 1997 the Deputy President of the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court remitted the applicant’s complaint about the notice of 4 March 1997 to the President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court for consideration on the merits. He also requested that the notice be rectified and that a public apology be presented to the applicant.
17.  By letters sent to the applicant by the Supreme Court of Ukraine on 26 September and 24 December 1997, the applicant’s claim was rejected as being unfounded. In particular, on 24 December 1997, the Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Ukraine recognised that the applicant’s father had been rehabilitated; the former also confirmed that he had been convicted for political reasons. On 8 September, 10 September 1997 and 22 April 1998, the President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court refused to annul the written notice or to reword it.
18.  On 1 April 2000 the applicant lodged complaints with the Zhovtnevy District Court of Dnipropetrovs’k to have the refusals of the Deputy President declared unlawful, and to rebut the information contained in the aforementioned notice of 4 March 1997. He also sought compensation for moral damage.
19.  On 2 June 2000 the Zhovtnevy District Court of Dnipropetrovs’k refused to examine the applicant’s claims on the ground that they fell outside the court’s jurisdiction, as they concerned the actions of a judge in the course of the administration of justice.
20.  On 20 July 2000 the Deputy President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court remitted the applicant’s request to extend the time-limit for lodging his cassation appeal to the Zhovtnevy District Court of Dnipropetrovs’k.
21.  On 27 July 2000 the Zhovtnevy District Court of Dnipropetrovs’k extended the term for lodging an appeal in cassation with the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court, as the applicant had not been informed until 7 July 2000 about the ruling of 2 June 2000, and would therefore have been unable to comply with the time limit for appeal in cassation.
22.  The Government submitted that on 27 July 2000 the Zhovtnevy District Court notified the applicant that his case would be heard on 14 August 2000 in the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court. The applicant alleges that he did not receive this notification.
23.  The case file arrived to the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court on 7 August 2000.
24.  On 14 August 2000 the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court, in the absence of the applicant, upheld the decision of 2 June 2000.
25.  The applicant’s complaints, lodged with the President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court, for the initiation of a supervisory review of the decision of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court, including a complaint about the lack of a public hearing in the consideration of his case before that court, were rejected on 24 October 2000 as being unsubstantiated. The President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court informed the applicant that the lack of a public hearing before the Regional Court had not been an obstacle to that court’s examination of the matter, the applicant having been duly informed about the date and place of the hearing, of which he had been notified on 27 July 2000.
26.  On 4 September 2003 the President of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court of Appeal issued a written notice to the applicant informing him that, on 28 March 1980, the Presidium of the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court had quashed the resolution of the Troika of the Department of the NKVD of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Dnipropetrovs’k Region of 5 September 1938 in respect of Mr G.I. Strizhak (the applicant’s father), and that the proceedings in the case were terminated on the basis of an absence of any corpus juris in the actions of his father. It also stated that Mr G.I. Strizhak had been declared to have been sentenced unlawfully, and rehabilitated.
27.  In January 2002 the Commission on Rehabilitation of the Zhovtnevy District Council in Dnipropetrovs’k refused to declare that the applicant was also “rehabilitated” (реабілітованим) in view of the quashing of the conviction of his father. They also rejected his request to issue a special identification card in that respect (посвідчення реабілітованого). In particular, they stated that the applicant had failed to provide information as to the place of his and his mother’s residence after the conviction of his father in 1938.
28.  In March 2002 the applicant instituted proceedings in the Zhovtnevy District Court of Dnipropetrovs’k against the Commission on Rehabilitation, seeking to declare their refusal to declare him rehabilitated unlawful.
29.  On 20 November 2002 the Zhovtnevy District Court of Dnipropetrovs’k rejected these complaints as being unsubstantiated. This judgment was upheld on 10 February 2003 by the Dnipropetrovs’k Regional Court of Appeal, and on 1 April 2004 by the Supreme Court.